Friday, March 4, 2016

Quick Craft: Ray Gun Stand From Cardboard

After all, the world has enough decorative bowls of fake fruit, my friends, but not NEARLY enough non-functioning fantasy weaponry.

SO. Here's an easy way to display that pretty pew-pew:

The triangular shape of the stand is extremely sturdy, so much so that I use this same design - also made from cardboard - to display one of our much heavier glass-and-brass ray guns.

The notched top ensures the barrel doesn't slide off, so it would take a really determined bit of shelf-shaking to make the gun fall over.

Plus, you can decorate it all pretty-like:

Here it is in shadow...

... and in the light:

Shiiiiiny.

All you need is a thin cardboard box from the pantry:

"What do you MEAN it's not for me?!"

Plus some strong tape to hold the stand together.

If you want your stand to look like mine, then you'll actually need metal tape, plus a little black craft paint to age it.

Getting the stand's height right requires a little trial and error, but a good place to start is with a 2.5x7.5 inch strip of cardboard. Cut that out, and mark & score two fold lines around 3 inches in from either edge. Then fold the ends up, like this:

Now prop your ray gun on it to test the height:

You want it to be just slightly too tall, since we'll be cutting out a notch next. It will probably be way too tall at first, though, so trim down the ends 1/4 of an inch at a time 'til it looks right.

Next, cut out a shallow notch in the center of each edge:

Make it as wide as your gun barrel, which in my case was about one inch.

Here's my completed stand before taping:

And now... WE DECORATE.

Cover both sides of your stand with varying sizes of metal tape, using a toothpick to mark "rivets" along all the edges:

When you're nearly done, fold the stand up and use more tape to hold the top edges together. (I used longer strips for extra grip.)

With another Con coming up, little miss Mallette has decided on Steampunk Poison Ivy, so this post gives me double inspiration: how to make her bright green water pistol into the cutest poison-gun ever, and what to do with it after. I think 5 is old enough to do a lot of the painting and rubbing. Alas, we have no metal tape, but we can improvise. Another generation of unstoppable mother-daughter crafting duo begins :) Thanks for the inspiration.

It's time to end the war on personal freedom. Prohibition never works, as the past has proven time and time again. And the demand for prostitution will never go away, hence it is the world's oldest profession. It's high time to LEGALIZE IT, both for the sake of the women who engage in prostitution and the men who buy it.

Contrary to false beliefs, the vast majority of women who engage in prostitution do so voluntarily. Therefore why should they not be allowed to legally trade sex for money? Also, legalizing prostitution would eliminate human trafficking since the very small percentage of women who are forced into prostitution would be able to go to the police for help. It would also eliminate the need for dangerous pimps.

What about STDs? Actually you are far more likely to get an STD with a regular girl since people tend to use condoms less with regular women. With prostitutes, condoms are a necessity and therefore the risk of STDs is zero. The whole STD scare has been blown way out of proportion in order to make people afraid of sex.

Studies also prove that when prostitution is legal, the number of rapes dwindles to practically zero. By keeping prostitution illegal, we are actually causing more women to be raped.

But the core issue is that we have NO RIGHT to tell two consenting adults that they cannot trade sex for money. It's time to legalize prostitution!

This is PERFECT!! I made a steampunk gun last year for the steampunk costume I debuted at Dragon Con and it's just been sitting in a box, waiting for me to get around to making a display. I even have the shelf space set aside for it! I'm going to have to get on this right away. :D